The term "Special Needs" is one which is poorly defined in general and particularly nuanced in the Lifelong Learning Sector, where its meaning has been extended to incorporate economic and social needs in addition to the more "traditional" interpretation of the term. Although the sector apparently operates inclusively,…

Research suggests that corporal punishment is related to higher levels of child externalizing behavior, but there has been controversy regarding whether infrequent, mild spanking predicts child externalizing or whether more severe and frequent forms of corporal punishment account for the link. Mothers rated the frequency with which they spanked…

Sleep problems of adolescents and older children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) were compared to toddlers and young children in 1,859 children. Sleep was measured with the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire. Total sleep problems were significant across all age groups, however the factors contributing to these problems differed. Adolescents…

Students who continuously misbehave are frequently excluded from class, allowing them time to reflect on their inappropriate behavior. This paper examines students' perceptions of the teacher's behavior toward them prior to, during, and after the exclusion, focusing on teachers' explanations, punishments, and follow-up conversations. The results…

The aim of this study was to examine whether vandalism, bullying, and truancy among pupils at school are associated with absence due to illness among teachers. Data on such problem behaviour of 17,033 pupils in 90 schools were linked to absence records of 2364 teachers. Pupil reported vandalism and bullying at the school-level were associated with…

Reinforcing an alternative response in the same context as a target response reduces the rate of occurrence but increases the persistence of that target response. Applied researchers who use such techniques to decrease the rate of a target problem behavior risk inadvertently increasing the persistence of the same problem behavior. Behavioral…

Several studies have tested Weiner's model, which suggests a relationship among causal attributions regarding challenging behavior (CB), emotions, and helping behavior of staff. No studies have focused on interpersonal styles. The goals of this study were to investigate the influence of type of CB on attributions, emotions and interpersonal style…

This paper highlights clinical challenges faced when diagnosing and then treating an individual presenting to a child and adolescent psychiatry clinic because of unwelcome comments he made to female peers about their feet. Novel use of exposure therapy helped him effectively decrease his comments from 1 to 2 times per month to once every 6 months.…

We investigated the influence of the child's behavior on the quality of the mutual parent-child attachment relationships across three generations. We did so using a prospective longitudinal study which spanned 20 years from adolescence through adulthood. Study participants completed in-class questionnaires as students in the East Harlem area of…

Anxiety, depression, and somatic complaints are a common set of comorbid problems in children and adolescents. This "internalizing cluster" is highly prevalent, impairing during youth and into adulthood, and has substantial impacts on health-care systems. Fortunately, these problem areas may share several etiological factors and, thus, respond to…

Background: Although secure residential care has the potential of reducing young people's behavioral problems, it is often difficult to achieve positive outcomes. Research suggests that there are several common success factors of treatment, of which the client's motivation for treatment and the quality of the therapeutic relationship between…

Rumination, passively and repetitively dwelling on and questioning negative feelings in response to distress, is a risk factor for the development of psychopathology, especially depression. The ruminative process is difficult to stop once it has begun. The present studies focused on strategies that may help youth disengage from ruminative states.…

Generally, studies have revealed that only a minority of people are bothered by participation in research on traumatic stress. Severity of traumatic events and subsequent responses are typically unrelated to negative reactions. We included 386 family members and caregivers (respondents) of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities…

This year the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families stated "Children and youth in the child welfare system are increasingly being dosed with psychotropic drugs to manage emotional problems and disruptive behavior that might better be addressed by psychosocial treatments to meet their complex needs." Children with histories of…

Challenging behaviors are deemed extremely common within the autism spectrum disorders (ASD) population. Numerous factors and their effects upon the presence and severity of challenging behaviors within this population have been investigated. However, there has been limited research to investigate the effects of cultural differences on challenging…